Fortresses
by wallfloweralways
Summary: This is my fan made sequel of sorts to Loving Annabelle. It switches between the perspectives of Simone and Annabelle, who are in prison and military school respectively. Two months in, Annabelle sends Simone a secret letter informing her of Collins' recent suicide. The two start keeping in touch via coded letters.
1. Chapter 1

"Got a light?" Simone mumbled with her cigarette between her teeth.

A scrawny, heavily tattooed inmate struck a match while Simone cupped her hands around it to block the wind. Simone silently thanked the woman before turning to walk towards a far corner of the prison yard.

"Oh, so it's like that, huh?" the woman yelled at her back.

"I'm sorry?" Simone replied. She stopped walking but did not turn around. Her body tensed as she felt a hand grip her shoulder and turn her around. The tension did not go away as her new acquaintance started laughing.

"I'm just fucking with you. I'm Jazmine," Jazmine chuckled extending her hand.

"Oh, Simone," said Simone blowing out smoke as she spoke and shook Jazmine's hand.

"You know, Simone, those things will kill you," Jazmine chided.

"God willing," Simone sighed.

"Oh, come on. This place is bleak as hell without pissing and moaning about it. What did you do wrong to get locked up here anyway?" inquired Jazmine.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Simone taking the cigarette out of her mouth to flick the ashes.

"Yeah, I know. We're all innocent," Jazmine scoffed.

"I never said I was innocent. I just said I did nothing wrong," Simone explained.

"Okay…? How long do you plan to be with us, Simone?" asked Jazmine.

"I might get out in two years if I'm lucky. The original sentence was five years," said Simone.

"I got five years, too, but my lawyer says he might can get me out of here in six months," said Jazmine.

"What did you do to end up here?" asked Simone dropping her cigarette and reaching for another.

"Seriously?" Jazmine grumbled as she lit Simone's new cigarette.

"Says the one who just happens to have a lighter," Simone puffed.

"Yeah, it's sorta my weapon of choice," said Jazmine, "So what about you? Did you kill someone? Steal a car? …Rob an Ann Taylor Loft?"

This got a small laugh from Simone, which was something she hadn't done in the two months she'd been incarcerated.

"Seriously, what did you do that wasn't so wrong?" Jazmine pressed.

"I fell in love," Simone replied as she threw down the cigarette she'd just lit.

"You're well on your way to arson as well," said Jazmine stomping it out.

Simone walked away and ignored Jazmine's yells this time. The bitter cold air made Simone long for the days she and Annabelle spent at the beach over Spring Break. Of course, everything about Annabelle gave off an aura of warmth, even the mere thought of her. Simone absently fumbled with the prayer beads around her neck. Amanda's cross often got tangled up with it, but Simone thought that was the way it should be. She would always be tangled up in them inside her soul. Before she knew it, yard time was over far too soon.

When Simone returned to her cell, she was surprised to find a letter on her bed from someone named Allison. After her cell mate went to take a shower, she opened the letter cautiously as though it contained a deadly viper. When she opened it, she saw that it might as well have.

"Dear Aunt Simone,

I don't know if you've heard, but I got a letter from Kristin last week saying that Collins killed herself. I thought you would want to know. She always liked you. I'm sorry that I am not writing to you under happier circumstances. I love you and miss you very much. Please write back.

Sincerely,

Allison

P. S : Sister Clair sends her regards."

No matter how many times Simone read the words, she couldn't get them to make sense. She didn't have any brothers or sisters, so it wasn't possible for her to have a niece. Each time she read that Collins had killed herself, her heart felt like a heavy ball of lead. Collins always had her issues, largely thanks to Kat, but Simone always had faith in her. Tears streamed down Simone's face and blotted the page as she blinked them away. It was the fresh smudge on the word "sister" that made her regain her composure…Sister Clair. There wasn't even a Sister Clair at the school to her recollection. She took another look at the address on the envelope.

"Allison Bradley

Rutherford Military School- Annabelle!" Simone gasped aloud.


	2. Chapter 2

The walls of the dormitories in Rutherford Academy perfectly represented the school as a whole: cold, bare, lifeless. Annabelle felt that the same words could be used to describe herself since she'd arrived there two months before. She had begged and pleaded with Senator Tillman to let her drop the charges against Simone. That went about as well as expected. Annabelle still remembered the conversation verbatim…

"I just don't know what to do with you anymore, Annabelle," Senator Tillman yelled throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"Do whatever you want with me, but do not take this out on Simone! It wasn't even her idea," Annabelle pleaded.

"That, I can believe," said Senator Tillman.

"Please, I love her," Annabelle replied.

"You should have thought about that before you cost her her job and her freedom. And that's beside the point. She had authority and she abused it! There are laws and she broke them. She needs to do her time for it," Senator Tillman spat.

"I was willing! She didn't force me to do anything! Please just let me drop the charges!" Annabelle cried.

"Be ready to go to Rutherford at 5 AM sharp," said Senator Tillman coldly before leaving Annabelle's room.

The abrupt knock on the door brought Annabelle back to the present. She rose from her bed to open the door. There was, to her displeasure, a military officer accompanying her mother and Senator Tillman's assistant Craig. Unfortunately, Annabelle could only go to Collins' funeral if her mother came with her.

"Are you ready?" asked Senator Tillman.

Annabelle only nodded. The officer escorted Annabelle, Senator Tillman, and Craig outside to Senator Tillman's limo.

"Miss Tillman is to be back here at no later than 17:00, "said the officer sternly.

"Understood, sir," said Craig.

That was barely any time at all considering it was noon and the drive to the church holding the funeral was two hours, but Annabelle didn't dare say anything about it. Silence was not easy for her, but as of late, she had become its prisoner. She even kept her mouth shut when the driver was going ridiculously slow even though he had been fully informed of how pressed they were for time. Annabelle, Senator Tillman, and Craig were the last ones to arrive before the funeral started. Annabelle took the vacant seat beside Kristin thankful that Senator Tillman and Craig had to sit on the very back row out of earshot.

"Collins would be glad you made it," Kristin attempted to whisper.

"Yeah, I had to practically beg to get to come here. I see Kat had the good sense not to show up," Annabelle said, gritting her teeth as she mentioned Kat.

"After what she did to you and Ms. Bradly…just about everyone dropped her," Kristin replied.

Annabelle simply nodded her head in response since she saw the priest walking up to the pulpit. In front of it, there was a table covered in a white cloth that was adorned with pictures of Collins at every stage of her life. In the middle, there was a silver urn. Annabelle couldn't help but think how it must feel for Collins' parents to not be able to give their daughter a proper, Christian burial. She recognized the priest from their school but couldn't quite remember his name. He droned on for several minutes about things that had nothing to do with Collins or her life.

After the funeral, Senator Tillman was met with enough fanfare from a majority of the people there, especially Kristin, who had to practically tear herself away to talk to Annabelle.

"Doesn't anyone in this place have a goddamned cigarette?" Annabelle complained.

A nearby splotchy faced boy who looked like the male version of Collins produced a pack, which he held out with a shaky hand.

"That's Garret. He and Collins were twins," said Kristin.

"Thanks…I'm sorry about your sister. I knew her from school," Annabelle mumbled taking the pack and helping herself.

"She used to talk about you some. Annabelle, right?" asked Garret hollowly.

"Yeah, that's me. She was always really sweet," said Annabelle

"That…was Collins. She had nothing but love for every living thing…she didn't take you and that teacher leaving very well," said Garret.

"Neither did I," said Annabelle more shortly than intended.

Kristin gave her a disapproving glance and steered her away from Garret.

"I didn't mean to-"

"I know you didn't…so do you still talk to her?" asked Kristin carefully.

"Simone? I found a way to send her a letter to tell her about Collins. I'm not sure when she'll get it or if she even will," Annabelle replied.

"I'm sure she will if she can. You didn't drop the charges?" Kristin asked.

"I wanted to, I swear!" Annabelle blurted, "But my mom wouldn't let me no matter how hard I pleaded. I really hope she doesn't hate me now," Annabelle finished more quietly.

"You know, no one was rooting for you two more than Collins," said Kristin.

"I'm surprised she even knew about us before we got caught," Annabelle puffed.

"Well, none of us knew for sure until then…" Kristin replied, "

"I guess I need to go give these back to Garret," said Annabelle still holding the pack and stomping out the butt of her cigarette.

Annabelle started walking that way but was quickly intercepted by Craig.

"It's time to go. Say goodbye to your friends and get in the car," Craig demanded.

"Get your hands off me. I have to return these to Collins' brother," said Annabelle easily wriggling out of Craig's hold on her shoulder.

When Annabelle reached the place where Garret was standing, she saw that he had nearly crumbled to the ground, only kept standing by the support his father's shaky arms. She wondered if Collins knew how much her family loved her. Probably not. She decided to delicately slip the pack into Garret's back pocket while offering quick condolences to the parents.

The ride back to Rutherford Academy was as agonizingly short as the ride to the funeral was long. Senator Tillman gave her an empty embrace before leaving. Annabelle sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked through the metal detector at the entrance to the academy. She hadn't even had time to do anything that would warrant a scan.

"I hope you enjoyed your time away. Please join the others in the cafeteria," said Gen. Kohlman.

"Fun? I was at my friend's funeral," said Annabelle before she could stop herself.

"Join the others in the cafeteria," Gen. Kohlman repeated.

 _God, she and Emmaculatta could be twins_ , Annabelle thought.

As soon as she finished eating what little she decided to eat, Annabelle decided to go straight to bed. She wanted this day to be over with as soon as possible. She was relieved to find that her roommate had not also left dinner early. She stripped off her funeral dress and let it lay crumpled on the floor, very much against Rutherford regulations. She was just about to get up and turn off the lights when she noticed something sticking ever so slightly out of the sole white book on her otherwise bare bedside table. Annabelle hadn't even opened the book in a while and she thought Allison knew better than to borrow her things without asking. When she opened the book to remove the paper, she saw that it wasn't just a scrap of paper.

"Dear Allison,

I am very surprised and happy to hear from you. As sad as the news about Collins is, I'm glad you told me. I love and miss you as well. There's so much to say that I know I can't write it all down. Please take care of yourself and try to follow the rules.

-Love,

Aunt Simone

P.S. Tell Sister Clair that it's not her fault. "

Annabelle read the letter over several times before crying happily and holding it to her chest. She was so overjoyed that she didn't even hear her roommate come in.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, cover up, will you?" Allison complained.

Annabelle rolled her eyes and threw her robe on messily.

"I see you've been doing a bit of light reading," Allison laughed.

"Allison, I love you so much right now! I could kiss you," Annabelle gushed.

"That's perfectly fine…save all that for…'Aunt' Simone," said Allison.

"Seriously, thank you so much for doing this for me," Annabelle said regaining her composure.

"Who knew my last name, the one thing my abusive, bigoted father ever gave me, would be the hero of the Sapphic reimagining of _Romeo and Juliet_?" Allison retorted.

"More like _Roseanne and Juliet,"_ said Annabelle pressing the letter to her chest one last time.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I'm sorry it's taken a while to update this. It's finals week, so I've been busy with things of that sort. I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Annabelle and Simone had been corresponding for a few months, sometimes delaying their replies for weeks at a time, but it was becoming more difficult to be cryptic. Obviously, their letters couldn't get too intimate considering that Annabelle was writing under the pretense of being Simone's niece.

"What about Morse Code?" Simone's roommate, Camille suggested.

"A bunch of dots would be way too obvious," Simone said tiredly.

"Well, I got nothing," Camille adjusting her reading glasses and flipping through an old magazine.

Simone had wracked her brains over and over trying to think of a code that couldn't be easily cracked by the guards in the mailroom. Calling Annabelle at her school would be far too risky, though Simone did miss the sound of her voice…

"Why hasn't she written me?" Annabelle wondered aloud.

"Why haven't you written her?" Allison said almost bored as the two of them ran laps.

"I don't know what to say…today is the day that Amanda…I feel like I should write her, but- "

"Ladies, if you have enough breath to talk, you're not running hard enough! Tillman, Bradley, you've earned the whole class ten more laps!" yelled the PE instructor.

The reset of the cast their eyes on Annabelle like a firing squad, including Allison. Annabelle pursed her lips and ran ahead of the rest of the girls. Her muscles burned and so did her throat as she realized the negative consequences that came to damn near everyone who dared associate with her. Maybe Simone was better off without her. If it weren't for Annabelle, Simone would still be teaching. She'd take and touch up beautiful photograph, have a nice, stable boyfriend with whom she'd fake all her orgasms and Stepford smile through all her dinner parties with. Still she would at least be safe and free. Annabelle ran her laps, ignoring the throbbing in her head and burning in her lungs. She kept running even after the instructor blew the whistle to stop. In fact, Annabelle didn't stop until all she could see were spots and all she could hear was the distant screaming of her last name.

"Oh, good, you're awake!" said a blonde, curly haired woman cheerfully.

"S'mone?" Annabelle mumbled as she squinted.

"No," the woman frowned, "I am Nurse Christie. You seem to have suffered a minor heat stroke."

Annabelle blinked a few times before surveying the room. She was lying in a hospital bed in what she assumed to be the school's infirmary. There were only a few other beds and hers was the only one occupied. Her legs were sore and she looked down and saw an IV in her right arm.

"You're dehydrated, so you have to keep this IV in for the next six hours," said Nurse Christie returning to her more cheerful tone.

"So…in six hours, I'm free to go?" asked Annabelle still somewhat sluggishly.

"I would like to keep you at least overnight just to be safe. You need a lot of rest and plenty of fluids," Nurse Christie replied.

"Oh, I bet Major Thompson will love to hear that," said Annabelle dryly.

Nurse Christie acted as though Annabelle hadn't spoken and started checking her vital signs.

"Everything looks good. Your heart rate is still somewhat high, but it seems to be coming down at a steady rate," said Nurse Christie.

"Is there any way I can get something to drink?" Annabelle asked.

"I'm afraid not…unless you'd like some ice chips," the nurse replied.

"Ice chips would be phenomenal," said Annabelle.

Nurse Christie nodded her head and walked off. Annabelle's head swam. She couldn't focus her thoughts on any single subject. It wasn't long until she went back to sleep.

…

Simone sat at a shabby library table alone rereading "Allison's" latest letter, which seemed to actually be from who it said it was from.

"Dear, Aunt Simone,

I'm sorry I haven't been able to write as often, but I've been very busy with my coursework. Major Thompson has been somewhat less hard on us since a girl had a heat stroke and dehydrated in his class. I know today is very hard for you and I hope you are being as strong as I know you are. Sister Clair has been a little down health wise, but I know she wanted you to know that she's praying for you.

Sincerely,

Allison. "

It was obvious that Annabelle was the one who had the heat stroke, and Simone wished there was some way to send her flowers or some token to let her know that she loved her and wanted her to get well soon, but that would be far too obvious. She couldn't wait for the day they could stop hiding once again. The anniversary of Amanda's death earlier in the week had been difficult, but all of her grief had been replaced by concern for Annabelle.

"Hey, you like kid's books?" said a voice behind her that caused her to jump.

"Jesus, you scared me!" Simone whispered.

"No Jesus here, just Jazmine," Jazmine smirked laying a book on the table and taking a seat in the chair across from her, "So do you?"

"Do I what?" asked Simone.

"Like kid's books," Jazmine repeated.

"Not particularly," said Simone furrowing her brow.

"Oh, I think you'll enjoy this one," said Jazmine sliding the book over to Simone.

" _A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window_ , " Simone read the title aloud.

"I know it's not Shakespeare or Keats or nothing like that, but I remembered reading these with my kids and thought you might like them," said Jazmine.

"Thank you, but I'm really not a big fan of- "

"Read it. Just trust me, and tell me what you think," Jazmine insisted.

"Fine, I'll read it," Simone sighed in exasperation.

Jazmine clasped her on the shoulder and walked away. Simone rolled her eyes and started on the first page.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I'm so sorry for the extremely long delay in updating this. I am a literal trash goblin. Also, it was challenging trying to figure out how to move forward with this plot.

While one couldn't say that the school was a pleasant place to be, the teachers seemed to be cutting Annabelle a little bit of slack since her heat stroke the week before. She knew better than to expect it to last. Allison hadn't gotten any mail since then, not that that was any surprise. Annabelle tried to throw herself into her studies, but she could never make herself be the bookish type. She desperately wished that Rutherford would allow her to have her guitar so she'd have something even remotely pleasurable to pass the time. If it was possible, she actually missed that stuffy Catholic school.

"I didn't think you of all people would be into children's books," Allison said walking into the dorm room making Annabelle jump.

"I'm not into any books. Why?" Annabelle replied quizzically.

"Oh, I think you might change your mind. I got an early birthday present from Aunt Simone…six months early-"

Annabelle leapt out of bed and snatched a small book and letter out of Allison's hand and glared at her for having opened it.

"What did you want me to do? Megan and Shelly wouldn't leave me alone until I opened it, and Mrs. Arbor was lurking in the mailroom," Allison said frantically.

"It's fine. I'm just glad she's actually talking to me," Annabelle replied.

"The letter doesn't make any sense. Maybe you can figure out what it means," said Allison sitting at one of the barren desks and starting on her homework.

"'Dear Allyson,

Are you studying your arithnetec? School iz alwayz something that has been important to mi. I don't want yoo to fall behind. You are too smart foe tha. You're too yung to waste yor potetial like that. I'm goin to tell yo lik I told your mother: Let the bredges your bur light the way. He sometames din't listin very mich but none of that hatters now. I sind my best regards.

-Love,

Aunt Simone '"

"I'm not a grammar snob, but isn't she supposed to be an English teacher? Maybe one too many prison beatings has her"- Allison cut herself off as Annabelle's angry eyes dared her to finish that sentence. "But what about the book?"

"' _A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window'_ …There's gotta be a connection," Annabelle though aloud.

"Happy reading," said Allison returning to her calculous homework.

It didn't take long for Annabelle to finish the book. The story wasn't even that bad, but it did take her skimming back over the pages a few times to realize why Simone had sent it. Lights out had been called hours ago, so it was a little more challenging to read by moonlight.

"It's a secret code!" Annabelle blurted out causing Allison to groan and cover her head with her pillow.

"I just have to find the correct letter from each misspelled word…Simone, that's genius!" Annabelle said much more quietly.

Annabelle pulled a notebook and pencil out of her backpack and scanned the letter for its various spelling mistakes. She wrote down the message and grinned mischievously as she read it to herself over and over again in disbelief: I miss your tongue inside me. Simone would have usually gotten flustered by that sort of language, something Annabelle frequently had fun with during the time they spent at Simone's beach house. Then again, they say that prison changes people…


End file.
